This invention relates to telephones used in connection with, e.g., cellular telephone systems, and particularly to cellular telephones used in conjunction with telephone-accessible audio-response systems such as voice mailbox systems, stock quotation services, and so forth.
Systems of this type are quite familiar. A caller may access, e.g., a voice mailbox system by dialing an appropriate telephone number, e.g., on a DTMF-equipped telephone. When the voice mailbox system "answers the phone," it transmits a series of audio messages inviting the caller to enter a password. The caller may gain access to a voice mailbox by entering keystrokes that correspond to the correct password for that account, whereupon the voice mailbox system plays back any audio messages stored in its memory (e.g., voice messages left by previous callers).